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Law-enforcement and child-welfare authorities are investigating the death of a 4-year-old boy
whose foster parents told authorities that he fell from their moving car.

Franklin County Coroner Jan Gorniak said the boy, identified by Franklin County Children
Services as Marquell Jacek Daron Reynolds, died of head injuries.

He is at least the fourth child who has died of non-natural causes since August after some
involvement with a central Ohio child-welfare agency, according to Franklin County records.

Marquell was placed in foster care two years ago; the other three children were living with
their own families when they died.

Gorniak said hospital reports indicate that emergency medical workers were told that Marquell “
undid the booster seat” and somehow got out of the car, which was traveling along a Morrow County
road on Saturday evening.

Morrow County Sheriff Steve Brenneman did not return calls about the case. His office issued a
news release on Monday saying the incident occurred in Bennington Township, and that the child was
taken to Morrow County Hospital before being flown to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus,
where he died.

Franklin County Children Services spokeswoman Deborrha Armstrong said yesterday that the agency
is still “trying to get the facts. It hasn’t been confirmed yet what happened.”

Jeff Evans, a relative in Marquell’s biological family, said they are preparing for the boy’s
funeral but still don’t understand how he died. “We’ve heard so many different stories,” Evans
said.

Although the Morrow County sheriff’s office is investigating, police in the county seat of Mount
Gilead issued one report in the case.

Police Chief Brian Zerman said yesterday that officers were dispatched to the Morrow County
Emergency Services Center on

S. Main Street around 7:45 p.m. Saturday. The foster parents, who said they were driving the boy
to a hospital, had stopped there for help after seeing an ambulance, Zerman said.

The police report said the boy “had fallen from a moving vehicle and was being treated by E.M.S.
personnel.”

A Children Services memo to the staff said that Marquell “was accidentally struck by his foster
parents’ vehicle.” Marquell’s two siblings, who also lived with the same foster parents, have been
moved to other foster homes for now, Armstrong said.

In the other cases, a 4-year-old girl who died on Nov. 7 had been beaten by her mother’s
boyfriend, Columbus police said. Layla Malone died at Nationwide Children’s a day after being taken
from an apartment on the Northwest Side.

According to records provided by Franklin County, an abuse complaint had been made concerning
Layla to Delaware County Children Services in June but was “screened out,” or determined not to
warrant a formal investigation.

Franklin County Children Services had received a complaint on July 16 that Hannah Randolph’s
parents were neglecting their children while the family stayed with a relative in Columbus. They
left while the case was being investigated and Hannah, an infant, died in a hot car traveling
through Oklahoma on Aug. 5.

Alonzo Soeuk, 3, died on Aug. 7 after being beaten by his mother’s boyfriend, Columbus police
said. Franklin County Children Services had received an abuse complaint about Alonzo on June 24 and
opened a case, but it was unable to find the family for follow-up, officials said.